Tenants of Pete’s Harbor in Redwood City asked for more than $1.2 million and the right for live-aboard boaters to remain at the marina when they countered a $50,000 offer from the waterfront developer who wants them out.

But Paul Powers, president of the Denver-based Pauls Corp. development firm, sent a terse letter Wednesday saying he was “quite disappointed” in the tenants’ reply.

“The demand for $1,220,920.92 seemed most unreasonable,” Powers said in the letter, provided by Marina tenant Alison Madden, who filed a lawsuit and an appeal of the planning commission’s October approval of the project on behalf of a coalition called Save Pete’s Harbor.

Powers’ financial offer, dated Jan. 24, came with the condition that Madden “and other existing and former tenants of Pete’s Harbor” would drop the lawsuit and the appeal and sign an agreement “to not oppose in any way whatsoever the Pete’s Harbor project” as it goes before regulatory agencies.

Powers has a deal to buy the 14-acre property from current Pete’s Harbor owner Paula Uccelli. He submitted an application to the city last year proposing to build 411 upscale rental units, plus a private 263-slip marina in the inner and outer harbors for residents of the new community.

The development plan, however, has not had smooth sailing. While the lawsuit and appeal are pending, about two dozen boats remain at the marina weeks after a Jan. 15 eviction date. Although some received permission from Uccelli to extend their stay a bit to work out some problems, others are openly defying the eviction order.

And the lawsuit’s assertion that the State Lands Commission — which leases the outer harbor to Uccelli — likely wouldn’t allow Pete’s Harbor to be turned into a private marina seems to be supported in a Jan. 25 letter from the state agency to Redwood City Planning Manager Blake Lyon.

“To date, the position of the CSLC (California State Lands Commission) has been that the intended conversion of the site to a private marina would not satisfy the requirement that the lease site be operated as a ‘commercial marina,’ and thus would require an application for a lease amendment or new lease,” wrote Grace Kato, the public land manager for the state agency.

Madden said Powers’ offer, which included a promise to keep the outer portion of the harbor open to the public, was insufficient because the state agency would have ruled against privatizing the outer harbor anyway and there was no guarantee that the live-aboard tenants who were kicked out could come back.

In addition to the request for $1.2 million, Save Pete’s Harbor asked in its counter offer for 60 live-aboard boat slips after the property is redeveloped.

Madden said the $50,000 offer was “ridiculous” because it was not enough to cover the losses of boaters who had to quickly move after being told on Sept. 20 about the development. The “920” in their dollar request is a reference to that date, Madden said in a phone interview Thursday.

“But none of it is to the exclusion of the substance of what we’re arguing for — the commercial marina, the live-aboards, and the right of first offer to come back,” Madden said.”

Not everyone with Save Pete’s Harbor has stood behind Madden, however; some tenants accused her of leaving them out of what should be group decisions and oppose her recent agreement to postpone the project appeal, which was scheduled to go to the city council on Monday.

In his letter to Madden, Powers said it was “obvious to us that there is not a representative of the former tenants of Pete’s Harbor who has authority to speak and negotiate for all” who wish to influence what happens to the outer harbor.

Pete’s Harbor live-aboard tenant Leslie Webster said that Madden doesn’t speak for her and many others. She maintained that “this was never about the money.”

But she blamed Powers for slipping cash into the equation, calling it a “ridiculous tactic” that won’t distract her and others from the goal of keeping the outer harbor open to the public.

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